


We're the Safe Side

by ShyChangling



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Child Soldiers, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Manipulation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-06
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2020-01-05 12:25:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18365984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShyChangling/pseuds/ShyChangling
Summary: The New Republic has a deep dark secret.





	1. Jensen

**Author's Note:**

> A series of shorts about how I interpreted some things in the Chorus trilogy. Mostly stuff involving the idea that the Lieutenents were kids when they all first joined. Though I actually imagine they'd been in the army for some time.

The news of her family's death hit Jensen like a brick to her glasses. Like the glass shattered and cut into her eyes. The world was blurry with tears but not once did she make a sound.

She was only 15. What was she to do? Where was she to go? The NR promised to keep them fed, paid and safe during the revolution. And while they were all out doing field maintenance a bomb had gone off.

The General had personally come to console her. He knelt down and put his hands on her shoulders. His Lieutenant General stood by the door watching and turns her head away to watch the grass.

"The New Republic's door is always open to you Katie. We owe your family so much." The General states. He stands and takes a few feet back. "We will keep everything open to you. We can give you food and lodging. Train you to defend yourself." He smiles softly and Jensen sees the Lieutenant shake her head behind him.

"You can keep me safe?" She asks, the world was so blurry. The world was so black and white to her. "So I won't be taken by the orphanage and the Federation can't have me?"

"They'll never have you, Katie. I promise you." He lightly touches her head in a comforting gesture. It was unnerving and uncomfortable. The Lieutenant General must of thought so too. "General," she is turned into the room now. "I think its time we return. Miss Katie, you'll be riding with me." 

Jensen seemed to catch it was a demand. Not at herself, seemed to be aimed at her superior. Jensen was star struck by her.

Eventually Jensen found herself a mechanic of the NR. She was already a prodigy of the craft it was no wonder she'd be given the job. The thing that worried her was being so young. The older mechanic women would always watch her back. Sometimes the Lieutenant would stop by to check on her. But unlike the other woman, the Lieutenant General always carried a sorrowful face.

Jensen pawned it off to just being the cost of war.


	2. Smith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Smith just wanted to be a medic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mentions of suicide this chapter.

When Smith joined the NR at 16 he wanted to be a medic. And from there when the war was over he could continue his training and become a certified doctor. That was the promise, that was the deal. 

He couldn't go home now. There was no family to return to with his Guardian sent to war to die, and grandfather who passed away in his sleep after downing a bottle of pills. 

Smith was alone and all he wanted was to save people.

He spent 6 months in training with the other medic trainees. Eventually though Smith some how caught the attention of the General after lifting a pillar off one of the other trainees in an accident. 

Smith always had strength on his side, but he trained himself to be so delicate with that strength. Strength could do so much. But that just wasn't what he wanted. "I'm flattered sir, but I would like to stay with the medics. There's so much I need to learn here."

"The medics can still have you, but I want you to spread out your training between these. I think it will do us all so good. A soldier who can fight and a soldier who can heal. In one package." The General points out. "Can you imagine how much more useful you'll be as a medic who can defend your peers as you heal them."

Smith took a moment to ponder that. That did entice him. He did want to make the world better. Perhaps he would have to use that strength he was gifted with. Maybe what ever cosmic Gods wanted this for him.

So he agreed. But over time, Smith found the General pushing him further and further out of medical training. Before finally, Smith only had the basics on his side and nothing more.


	3. Bitters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bitters wanted nothing to do with them.

Bitters had watched for years to keep Matthews safe. Matthews was such a naive child. Bitters really couldn't do much more then keep them both on the move and out of the war zones. Twelve year olds don't need to see people die. Bitters would do anything to protect him. Bitters was already at the legal age for war. But he refused to seek out the NR.

He had heard the rumours. How so many children were taken in for protection. But suddenly you'd have reports on those very children winding up dead on the field. Bitters wasn't falling for it. He was too smart for them.

At least that's what he thought.

They were caught in a crossfire on the fields. Matthews was crammed into a rock passage big enough to fit him. Bitters had grabbed a dead Fed's gun and downed a few approaching soldiers. Bitters pressed up against the rock with the gun pointed, empty now as an New Republic Lieutenant stands before him. She looks down at him and carefully takes the gun out of his trembling hands.

"You kids alright?" She asks quietly and tilting her head to see the other child staying hidden. 

Bitters grimaces. "We're fine. You can go back to your group." He says trying to shoo her away.

The Lieutenant General stands and puts her hands on her hips. She's in a pickle. Does she let these kids run and risk finding them dead a few weeks after. Or does she report to the General and risk finding them dead a week after as soldiers.

But its too late as the other NR soldiers have spotted her. Calling the medics over to check on the kids there.

She takes her steps away. There's nothing she can do now, no matter how much she wished other wise.

Bitters was given the choice. Not much of a choice though was it. "Fight for us or Matthews who so eagerly wishes it will be on the field in your stead." What a manipulative bastard the General was.

Bitters agreed. He refused to let Matthews be molded into something horrific. But in three years time, Bitters would see Matthews in armor. He screamed tried to reach the general to argue. But to no luck. He was blocked and sent back to to his barracks.

He wishes to this day Matthews had stayed a cook. He wished the General would die in a ditch. He wished he could of grown up to be the painter he always wanted to be.


	4. Palomo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Palomo wasn't always from the New Republic's side.

Palomo wakes up in the Federation infirmary. He sees that green X behind his eyes and forces them to stay open. This wasn't supposed to happen. His family was so loyal to the Federation.

They did everything for the Federation. Palomo even.. Palomo even told the merc where they lived. What time they'd all be home. It was just for a talk. It was supposed to be for a talk. They weren't traitors to the Federation. 

Palomo starts crying, which alerted the Doctor, Grey, that he was awake.

She hurries over to him. Scooting her chair over to him. "There we are. All awake now?"

Palomo looks up at her and turns his head away. He shuts his eyes again, but all he sees is the green.

"You're very lucky, little one. That shot missed your spine." Grey says. She's chipper, delighted. Palomo isn't sure how to feel about her happy tone. "Come now lets look this way." She taps a pencil on her clip board. 

Palomo says nothing. But complies. He continues to stay silent as Grey spills her questions to him. When she sees no vocal response she changes to explain the situation to him.

Palomo bursts into tears again as he hears those dreaded words. Grey drops her happy tone, she lays out that his family is gone. She lets him cry, its long and dreadful to hear. She stands and heads to the exit of the room as she hears Locus approach. 

Palomo goes silent. His breathing stops. Grey is quick to shove Locus out of the room's sight range and certain to scold him more for the actions that lead to this mishap. "Unfortunate accident. Locus you shot a child in the cross fire. A child!"

Palomo covers his ears to tune out the one sided argument. 

Over the course of the month Palomo had found the Doctor Grey smothering. Too happy, to mothering. Too many dark jokes that border on the line. He was almost ready to be discharged and sent away. But Grey had grown fond of him. 

"I could take you in. I have an extra room at home and well its furnished." She offers to adopt the young one who refused to speak more then a few words to anyone there. 

It was after that talk Palomo had decided he needed to leave. He didn't need a new family. All he wanted was to burn the Federation to the ground. Let them rot in this fake society they made. He knew the New Republic would take him. 

He's quickly picked up and offered safety and vengeance. Palomo noticed he had taken in Grey's chipper tone and hates himself. He notices the green of the solders here in the NR matches Locus'. He finds the hazing as he joins to be taxing and jarring. 

He refuses to ever tell anyone he was a Federation brat. He could only imagine how much worse the hazing would be on someone his size.

The Lieutenant General disrupts the game and chases off the tougher boys from the new recruit. Palomo feels grateful. But he sees that sorrowful look in her eyes that Palomo can't place.


	5. Kimball

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kimball wishes things were better.

Kimball had enough. It had been seven years of watching children come in and die young. As the Lieutenant General she had to stop it, but at this point there's no one more children to spare. She wasted her time and grimaces at herself for the bullshit she watched and let happen.

She seeks Felix out and pours her heart to him. He understands, he empathizes with her. Kimball sees a broken look in his eyes as he grabs her shoulder. "You'd make the better General, Vanessa. You actually care for these kids."

Kimball isn't sure what to think. When the announcement comes that the Generals are dead. That she is pushed up in rank and finds herself in charge of all these soldiers who seven years ago would of been just children. She puts her helmet on and wonders. Did Felix have anything to do with the death of the Generals. But the report pointed to the Federation at fault.

Still something deep in her wondered. And Felix kept a tight lip seal on what happened.


End file.
